Personalized postage indicia created to include photographs or graphic images generated by users have been commercially available for several years. Specifically, the PHOTOSTAMPS® product available from Stamps.com Inc., Los Angeles, Calif. (the assignee of the present application), allows users to select personal photographs, graphic images, and other personalized pictures (collectively referred to herein as images) for inclusion in postage indicia. Integration of such images into postage indicia provides for a postage indicia which appears more like a traditional postage stamp than the postage meter stamps previously available to users. Moreover, the ability to personalize postage indicia through integration of such images has added a new facet to posting mail items. Accordingly, the PHOTOSTAMPS® product has meet with commercial success.
However, certain realities of the ability to personalize postage indicia with images has heretofore necessitated implementing a centralized postage indicia printing model. Specifically, to prevent lewd, crude, or otherwise inappropriate images being incorporated into postage indicia, the commercialized model for printing such postage indicia has been to have users submit their images to a central facility (e.g., a postage service provider facility, such as a PC postage vendor) for review and approval. The images may be reviewed by personnel for inappropriate messages, symbols, nudity, etc. Once reviewed and approved, postage indicia including the approved indicia may be generated and printed in the postage amounts and numbers of postage indicia requested by the user. For example, information based indicia (IBI), such as may comprise barcode postage security information and thus is utilized to represent postage value, may be integrated with approved images in order to generate a personalized postage indicia. For example, generated personalized postage indicia may be provided as a digital image file (e.g. PDF, JPG, GIF, or other file format) containing IBI, an approved image, and additional information (e.g., human readable postage amount, text message, postal class, etc.). Printing of such postage indicia has been carefully controlled within the central facility because the generated file contains postage indicia, to prevent theft or fraudulent printing of postage indicia (e.g., multiple prints), in order to avoid a user or other individual from replacing approved images with unapproved images prior to printing, etc.